Her Value? She's Priceless
by Reese M
Summary: In life there is nothing like the light that a true friend can shine when it gets a bit dark or scary or lonely. There is nothing better than sharing the moments of light with them too. This is a story of friendship, a life long friendship between two incredible women, Helena Magnus and Peggy Carter. Sanctuary/Agent Carter xover. (Be this fic just needs to exist)
1. Chapter 1

_Hallow Earth Sanctuary – The Present_

Her office was littered with photographs of herself with people who for good or ill influenced the course of history. Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Franklin, Teddy, and Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, Che Guevara, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and so many others stared out from picture frames where anyone could see them. Each and every one a reminder of how long Helen had lived. The photographs in her private rooms spoke not of the length of her life but the value and quality of it. The faces that smiled at her from those frames were the faces of those she loved and cared about, her family and closest friends. Ashley, James, Henry, Will, and her dear old friend were some of the more familiar faces, but there were a few pictures in Helen's bedroom that no one quite knew the story behind.

Sitting on her bed Helen held one of those photographs in her hand. Two smiling women looked back at her from the black and white setting of a USO club in London. Though Helen fought throughout the war she was a civilian who took orders, when and if she took them at all, directly from Churchill himself, so she never wore an official uniform. She had, however, taken to wearing slacks and a button down shirt and tie. She'd also become rather found of wearing the dark navy blue trench coat worn by the Royal Navy. Her hair was red during that decade, sometimes it was just long enough to touch her shoulders and at other times it spilled across her back in fiery waves. The picture was taken just prior to Helen leaving for France in 1944 so her hair was at her shoulders. She smiled at the camera not knowing what lay ahead of her in the days and weeks to come, but it wasn't her younger self that Helen was looking at. It was the young woman beside her.

She wore the dark olive green uniform of the British Armed Forces Special Air Service, but the pins and badges on that uniform identified her as an agent for the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Her brown hair was an inch shorter than Helen's, maybe more but not much, and curled into the tight waves that were popular then. Her eyes were brown but full of light that comes from intelligence, compassion, and a zest for life that a lot of women still struggled with back then. A lot of women were tentatively stepping out of their homes and kitchens and into the world at large for the first time, but not her. She'd come running out with a shout of here I am world, this is me, this is who I am; now deal with it.

Helen let her thumb caress the glass as she continue to look at the photo protected behind it. They'd meet just after she'd finished her training. She'd been so young, younger than most realized. She was eager to begin not just her assignment or military career but her life. She wanted more and she was ready to go out and get it, but she was young, inexperienced, and stumbled often in those early days, but she always picked herself up, dusted herself off, and learned from her mistakes. She could be very prim and proper, the poster girl for being English, but she could also make a sailor blush when she dared to swear and punch a corn feed yank in the face with enough force to knock him on his ass.

Standing up Helen moved across the room to place the frame back where it belonged, among other frames that held photos of the same woman at various times in her life. Sitting at the counter of an automat restaurant in New York City with a grinning waitress standing behind her and a dapper looking Englishman sitting beside her, another picture of them together along with Katharine Hepburn outside a movie studio in Los Angeles, her wedding day, and the first time Helen had meet her infant children, all scenes from a long but normal life, a life close to completion.

Margaret "Peggy" Carter was one of Helen Magnus' oldest and dearest friends. One of the few outside the world of the Sanctuary who knew about Helen's secret, and in turn Helen knew more than a few of Peggy's. They had been in and out of each other lives for sixty plus years, and for Helen that was a rarity. If she allowed someone to remain in her life like that then that person had to be someone more than special because it meant in time she would have to mourn that person. She would have to mourn Peggy.

Turning away from the collection of pictures Helen walked over to her closest to pull out her suitcase. She would need to pack quickly if she were going to make it to Washington D.C. by morning. As she packed her mind drifted back to the first time she'd meet Peggy, and from there it didn't take long for the memories to come flooding in.


	2. Chapter 2

_London – 1939_

From behind her dressing screen Helen could hear the snap of the paper as James went through the morning headlines. It had been three months since Neville Chamberlain announced the country was at war with Germany, and just as she knew it would, the world was thrown into chaos. Air raid sirens filled the air, the morning milk was delivered by men with gas masks at the ready, children were sent to live in the countryside or shipped of to Canada for their safety, young men and women flocked to military service while those unable to serve took on the responsibility of safe guarding their homes and neighbors by joining the Civil Defense Service.

Helen had once again been drafted into service for King and Country though Chamberlain had no clue how to use her outside of assigning her to the medical corp. During the Great War Helen had split her time between her Sanctuary work and serving as a civilian military doctor. This of course was quickly followed by the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, which once again saw Helen summoned to a meeting with the Prime Minster on behalf of the King. Helen wondered just when had the British government come up with their 'Bloody hell everything's gone pear shaped! Quick, someone fetch Helen Magnus!' policy. While she could almost excuse Chamberlain for not knowing how to put her skills to use, she was utterly baffled at why he wasn't using the other three remaining members of The Five. Nigel's abilities would make him perfect for infiltration, Nikola was a one man R&D unit, and James would be a great asset to the War Office. Helen had tried to make suggestions to Chamberlin but he didn't seem able to see past the fact that she was a woman. Lord Admiral Winston Churchill on the other hand knew how to use the recourses he had at hand.

Stepping out from behind her screen Helen walked over to her vanity to finish her hair and make-up and almost instantly she could feel James' gaze quickly followed but his disapproval.

"Really Helen?" James said with a deep sigh. "Trousers? Is this truly the kind of first impression you want to make?"

Helen was wearing a pair of navy swing style trousers with a row of red buttons on the side of her waist, and a matching short sleeved button down blouse with red cuffs at the arms and a wide red collar. "I'm not the one who needs to worry about making a good first impression." She replied with a roll of her eyes and before pausing to apply her lipstick. Then she turned to face him and crossed her arms over her chest. "If you insist on acting like a disapproving grandfather James, than you and that machine of yours are welcome to sleep in your own room from now on."

James sighed softly.

"That's what I thought." Helen replied before slipping into her heels and walking out the door. Since she'd had breakfast in her room she went straight to her office to look over messages and reports that had come in over night. A second cup of tea was already waiting for her, freshly brewed and still steaming. There was a lot of abnormal activity in mainland Europe. Not surprising given what was going on. Human armies marching through territories tended to stir things up in even the most obscure abnormal communities. She was just finishing up writing out her replies when there was a knock on her door. "Come in."

Raahi had meet her father as a boy while Gregory was on an expedition to India. When he'd come to London she'd gladly given him work and now he was a trusted employee who ran her household wonderfully with the help of his wife. "The young woman from the SAS is here, Doctor Magnus."

Helen held out a stack of papers. "Have these telegraphed please, Raahi."

"Yes ma'am." Raahi replied with a bow while accepting the papers.

"Is she in the parlor?" Helen asked as she stood.

Raahi nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you Raahi." Helen smiled.

Some habits died hard. Helen still insisted on greeting guests in the same parlor she always had, in the same parlor her father had used. She entered the room as quietly as she could so she could get a look at the young woman before the formalities set in. She was young, younger than most realized. Helen wondered if perhaps the young woman hadn't deducted a year or two from her year of birth on her enlistment forms. Her hair was as short as was socially acceptable and pinned back neatly. She wore the dark olive green uniform of the Army's Special Air Service, skirt and jacket freshly pressed, shoes polished to a perfect shine, and even though she couldn't see it since the young woman's back was to her Helen knew she'd have on a crisp new white shirt. Helen noticed the young woman's eyes were brown when she turned and they widened in surprise to find Helen standing there.

"Oh." The young woman squeaked softly. "Doctor Helen Magnus?"

"Yes." Helen said with a nod. "You must be Margaret Carter."

"Yes ma'am." Peggy replied as she snapped to attention.

Helen gave the younger woman a careful once over before waving towards one of two wingback chairs. "Please have a seat Miss. Carter. Tea?"

"No, thank you Ma'am." Peggy replied as she took the chair Helen had indicated. This was her first official posting since finishing her training and she'd been somewhat nervous all morning, and had kept her hands from shaking by keeping them around a teacup. If she had one more cup of tea Peggy feared she would burst. Perhaps she wouldn't have been so anxious if she hadn't noticed the odd looks of some of the older officers on base when they learned she had been assigned to act as liaison to Doctor Magnus. At first she had wondered if the tired old bulldogs were huffing over Doctor Magnus being a woman, but then she'd realized they weren't complaining about her put praising her. Peggy heard one of them mention that Doctor Magnus had been in the field hospital he'd been in during the Great War, and how she'd saved the lives of so many young men. Now that she was sitting face to face with Helen Magnus the old warhorse couldn't have been talking about the same woman. It had been twenty years since the Great War ended. The woman sitting across from her wouldn't have been much older than Peggy was now. She could have perhaps been a young field nurse but the old man had said something about, "Stuck her hand right in his chest, didn't even flinch, and saved the lad's life she did, that lady doctor." His mate had nodded and then in a thick northern accent he'd added, "Doctor Magnus saved more of our lads than that lord's son turned officer ever could have." But there was no way this woman had been a full fledge doctor back in the teens, she simply wasn't old enough.

"Do you know why you're here, Miss. Carter?" Helen asked after watching Peggy for a moment. She wondered what the young woman was thinking so hard about.

Helen's voice had pulled Peggy out of her thoughts. She shook her head before answering Helen's question. "To be honest ma'am, no, I do not. I know my assignment is to be your liaison to the War Office, but I have no real medical training or experience beyond the basic field medic training everyone gets."

"Our work together will very rarely consist of medical work, though if things get as bad as I fear they might you will see your fair share of field hospitals while with me." Helen tried hard not to let memories from the past cloud her mind, but it wasn't easy. She knew all to well the long and bloody road that now stretched out before them all.

Peggy looked a little confused but even more intrigued. To be honest, at least with herself, she'd been kind of disappointed when she'd been given this assignment. She had hoped to be put to some use in the field, and being a gofer for some aristocratic doctor hadn't really measured up to what she'd been picturing SAS service would be like. "I don't quite understand, ma'am, if your not working for the War Office as a civilian doctor, than what will we be doing?"

Helen smiled as she sat back in her chair to watch the young woman. She crossed her legs, laced her fingers together, and put her hands on her knee. "Your scores and assessments during your army training were outstanding, Miss. Carter. If you were a man you'd have been sent off for special operations training instantly. Thankfully for me, since Churchill insisted I have a military companion, you're not a man because out of all the potential options I was give, both men and women mind you, you had the one attribute this assignment will depend on more than any other skill you have."

"What attribute was that?" Peggy asked. Her head titled slightly as she wondered what had made her so special. If this woman had indeed had her pick of people what had made her choose Peggy Carter of all people?

"You're ability to believe in the unbelievable." Helen said with a bright smile.

Peggy had no reply to that. She had no idea what that even meant. The ability to believe in the unbelievable? She was about to ask Helen what she was talking about when the older woman suddenly stood up and began walking towards the close door of the very Victorian styled room, so Peggy jumped to her feet as well.

"Did you bring a travel bag, Miss Carter?" Helen asked as she opened the door and waved to signal her butler.

Peggy nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Good." Helen said to the young woman before turning her attention to the Indian man who'd stepped into view. "Raahi, inform Mister Watson that Miss Carter and I are leaving for the airfield, and have the car brought round."

Raahi nodded and the headed off to do as Helen had asked.

"Airfield?" Peggy asked.

Helen nodded. "I've been asked to find and retrieve a valuable war asset. It shouldn't be to overwhelming for your first time in the field. Well, finding him shouldn't be. Putting up with him, well that's a different story."

A rush of excitement ran through Peggy and she really hoped that it didn't show outwardly. So she would have an active role in this war after all, or so it would it would seem. It still made no sense to her, it was starting to slow dawn on her that Helen Magnus wasn't just some lady doctor from a renowned Victorian family. "The asset is a him?"

Helen nodded, a smile on her lips and a light in her eyes, and then she asked, "Have you ever been to Eastern Europe, Miss Carter?"

Peggy shook her head slowly.

"Serbia is lovely this time of year." Helen replied with a look that made those who knew her think, uh oh.

They began their search in a village named Smiljan. Helen had flown them there herself much to Peggy's surprise and delight. It was quickly becoming clear to Peggy that she could learn a lot from Helen, and it wasn't just that she was a doctor who could fly a plane, there was just something about Helen that Peggy hoped she had somewhere inside too. She watched with a bit of wide eyed wonder as Helen spoke to the local orthodox priest and then followed her to a small but well kept home. She watched as Helen knelt near an elderly Serbian woman who sat in a chair just outside the kitchen door with a bowl of vegetables in her lap. The old woman, who could easily be at least ninety, seemed to know Helen and Peggy wondered how. She smiled at Helen in a certain way, patted her cheek, and nodded. Helen stood and motioned for Peggy to follow her inside.

"Who is she?" Peggy asked as they made their way upstairs.

"Angelina Trbojevic, formerly Tesla." Helen answered.

Peggy had to think but when she realized where they were and who the woman was, her eyes went a little wide. "As in Nikola Tesla?"

"His sister." Helen replied. She pushed open a door to one of the bedrooms and stepped inside. She crossed the room and began to push the heavy dresser away from the wall. "A hand if you please, Miss Carter."

"His sister?" Peggy repeated as she helped Helen move the heavy piece of furniture.

"Older by six years." Helen bobbed her head in a yes manner before crouching down once the dresser was moved. She tapped her knuckle against a couple of the floorboards and then reached for the knife she had hidden at the small of her back. She used it to pry a loose floorboard up.

"So," Peggy said as she watched Helen reach into the hole she'd made in the floor. "Nikola Tesla was born in 1856, so she was born in 1850, she's nearly ninety, wow, that's older than both my Grans."

Helen shot the young woman a look before pulling a small torch from her pocket to look into the space below the now missing floorboard. As she gazed inside she muttered under breath, "1850 was a fine year to be born."

After pulling a small packet from the hole and replacing the floorboard and dresser, and after Helen stopped to say goodbye to Angelina they returned to the airfield. While the plane was being fueled they had tea and a bit to eat while Helen deciphered the message that had been in the small packet.

"So this asset," Peggy said as she peered over at what Helen was doing. "This person has something to do with Nikola Tesla? And we're meant to find him so he can help the war effort in some way?"

Helen looked up from her writing and titled her head a little. "How would someone connected to Nikola Tesla help with the war effort?"

Peggy bit her lip as she thought about that and then answered, "If he were a student or apprentice to Nikola Tesla then he'd be of help coming up with new resources for our troops."

"Very good, Miss Carter." Helen said with a smile and then dropped her head to continue writing. "But he isn't a student or apprentice of Nikola's, nor a relation." She smiled when she finished figuring out the message and huffed as she read it. "Really? Romania? Oh that's just tacky." Standing she folded the message and put it in her pocket, downed the rest of her tea and then looked at Peggy and said, "Off we go Miss Carter. I know just where are quarry is."

Ok, Peggy could at least admit it to herself. She was scared. It wasn't a rational, facing an enemy kind of scared. It was the kind of scared you felt sitting in a dark cinema on a Saturday afternoon watching Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Seeing as how she was following her new civilian c.o. down a stone flight of stairs towards the lowest levels of a centuries old Romanian fortress Peggy felt the comparison was fair. After watching Helen disarm yet another booby-trap Peggy whispered, "This guy really doesn't want to be bothered does he?"

"No, he's just being annoying." Helen answered. "No one but me would bother coming to find him, and if the situation weren't as dire as it is, not even I would be here."

"You don't like this guy much do you?" Peggy commented.

Helen laughed softly. "He's one of my oldest and dearest friends, I adore him, just don't ever tell him I said so."

The room they eventually walked into was clearly a lab and looked very out of place. It was full of modern equipment, well lit with electrical features that had no place in the old castle, and even a radio that was playing Glenn Miller. In the middle of the room at a workbench was a rather handsome man who looked up when they walked in. His eyes lip up when his gaze fell on Helen and his smile was automatic.

"My darling Helen, what a pleasure to see you." He purred as he got to his feet and made his way over to them. He took Helen's hand and kissed it.

Helen looked annoyed and rolled her eyes. "Vald the Impairer's castle? Really Nikola?"

"You don't' find it amusing?" He responded.

"I find it tacky and in bad taste." Helen scolded.

"Well," He shrugged. "I thought it was funny." He smiled, and then over Helen's shoulder spotted someone new. "Oh, you've brought a friend with you." Side stepping Helen he approached Peggy. "What a lovely shade of green you have on my dear."

"Be nice, Nikola." Helen warned.

"You're the one who's forgotten her manners, Helen." Nikola scolded. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Helen rolled her eyes but smirked. She was waiting for this moment so she could watch Peggy's reaction. "Nikola Tesla, Margret Carter."

There was no hiding the surprise on Peggy's face. "Nikola Tesla?"

"At your service, Miss Carter." Nikola said as he took her hand and kissed it.

"Wait," Peggy said as she looked between Helen and Nikola. "Nikola Tesla? How is that possible? Tesla's in his eighties."

The important thing in Peggy's response was asking how this was possible and not saying that it was impossible. Helen smiled.

"I look good for eighty-three don't I?" Nikola replied.

"It's a long story that I'll explain when we get back." Helen told Peggy before addressing Nikola. "We need you to come back with us, Nikola."

He nodded. "I was in Austria last year. I could read between the lines. I'm ready, I was simply waiting for my escort, you know, someone to do the heavy lifting."

He winked at Peggy and Helen scowled. "Leave her be, Nikola."

Nikola groaned. "You're no fun these days, Helen, you've grown stuffy in your old age. I blame James. He's still so… Victorian."

The entire way back to England Peggy had tried to work it out for herself but nothing she'd come up with came close to the truth. Helen had been born in 1850 and while at Oxford she had created a serum that unlocked traits in her DNA that made her stop aging, or at least slowed it considerably. Helen still wasn't one hundred percent clear on what the serum had done to her. Peggy hadn't been sure she believed Helen but then she'd meet Niles Griffin and saw what he could do, and then there was no denying it. Her time with Helen prepared Peggy for what would come next in her life. Another serum, another remarkable person changed, only this time Peggy wouldn't find a mentor and friend but someone who would mean so much more.

And in getting to know him Peggy would end up finding herself needing Helen in her life again.


	3. Chapter 3

_New York 1943_

An hour ago Peggy Carter had walked into her quarters with a huff and satisfying slam of the door. Perhaps in a few days she would think picking up the gun and shooting at Steve was a little overly dramatic, but then again perhaps she wouldn't. There had been something really enjoyable about the looks on Steve and Howard's faces as she walked away, so maybe she wouldn't regret it later. What she should have done was shot at that bottled blonde.

After a long hot bath and a nice stiff scotch Peggy felt a little better, but her thoughts were still a bit frazzled. So after making herself a cup of tea she sat down at the small table in her room and pulled out her box of stationery. 

_Dear Helen,_

 _I've heard through a mutual acquaintance that you've headed off on yet another one of your little endeavors. I would tell you off about running full on, head first, into these situations of yours but we both know that would be a waste of ink. I will ask that you be careful. I have been blessed during this madness. I haven't lost anyone I truly care deeply about, unlike so many others I know. I would very much like to keep it that way._

 _You promised high tea at the Waldorf in New York City and I am going to hold you to that, Helen. You have no idea how badly I need a good cup of tea, and the company of a proper English lady. There's only so much I can handle when it comes to these brazen American women. Kissing him the way she did, as if it were her god given right to kiss him just because she's an attractive blonde and he's handsome and smart, and heroic, and a big bloody idiot! What Steve Rodgers knows about women you could fit into my Nan's favorite thimble, with room to spare. Which is why I suppose I can't fault him completely. That private however, that Lorraine woman, she I can fault. Trouble that one, nothing but trouble. I wonder if the colonel will transfer her if I ask? Or maybe I could ask Howard to keep her away from Steve. He'd enjoy that, the cad that his is._

 _Oh dear, I fear this letter has gotten a bit catty. Well, as you can see I am in desperate need of someone to talk to, so whatever it is you're up to I need you to come back from it safe and sound. Don't make me come rescue you. I already have my hands full with captain wonder boy and his groupies._

 _Give my best to the lads._

 _~Peggy_

 _Weeks Later – Allied Camp – South Pacific 1943_

When she pictured traveling the world as a girl Peggy never quite pictured so much of the world being covered in sand. She hadn't even spent the day on the beach, she'd spent it in a makeshift command center looking over recon images with Steve and the Howling Commandos planning their next mission, and yet despite being fully clothed in her uniform she felt covered in tiny irritating partials of grit and grime. To make matters worse she was stuck with provisional showers rather then the large, deep, bath she saw in her dreams every night.

Stepping into her quarters she sighed softly as she closed the door behind her. "I've sand in places a lady shouldn't have sand."

"Could be worse." A voice called out from the small table in the center of the room. "You could be covered in bog slime and putrid mud the way you were the last time we were in the Netherlands."

Peggy whirled around with wide eyes, her heart slightly racing from the sudden startle. It only took a few seconds for her to know the voice but hearing it still came as a shock. "Helen!"

Helen smiled. She was seated at Peggy's little table looking as relaxed and comfortable as she would have if she were seated in one of her leather wingbacks. She was dressed in what had become her unofficial wartime uniform, black slacks, white button up blouse and tie. A black leather jacket hung from the back of her chair rather then the long navy trench coat. Her bobbed red hair was pulled back in slight waves and her makeup was perfect. She looked as if she'd just stepped out of one of the boys' USO posters. Peggy found it slightly annoying.

"It's not the Waldorf," Helen said as she stood to hug Peggy hello. "But I promise the tea is just as good."

Peggy sighed in relief as she hugged her friend. She'd mailed her last letter to Helen weeks ago and hadn't heard a word in return. Nikola hadn't heard from her either, and when James rang her from London before she'd left New York with no updates Peggy had started to worry. "You're alright."

"Of course I'm alright." Helen said as she hugged the younger woman a little tighter before letting her go. In the four years since their first meeting they two had grown to be good friends. Helen had been Peggy's first true teacher, showing her things that she would have never been shown otherwise because she was a woman. Many of the skills Dugan and the lads admired in Peggy had come from her time with Helen. The adventures, and that truly was the only word for what she experienced with the immortal woman, had been a dream come true for Peggy, and they had prepared her for what she found herself involved in now in ways she couldn't even began expressing gratitude for. For Helen, Peggy had been a rare gem, another woman with the same kind of before her time mentality. Peggy, though still so very young, was brave and bold, daring and headstrong, compassionate and caring. She was someone Helen could talk to and interact with on an almost equal level. Her youth and inexperience kept Helen from seeing the girl as an equal for now, but Helen had no doubt that someday Peggy would become just that and more. "I had a lovely little holiday in Poland and I thought I'd stop in on my way back to London."

Peggy watched, eyes wide and mouth agape, as Helen began pouring tea as casual as can be. "Helen!"

"Yes?" Helen said as she looked at the younger woman.

"Poland?" Peggy's mind flooded with current events. She'd read the reports; she knew the kind of horrors that country was in the midst of. "There were just…"

"Yes, I know." Helen replied as a deep sadness clouded her eyes.

This war was full of that kind of sadness. There was no getting away from it, away from the nightmares and gruesomeness that invaded their realities. Peggy reached for Helen's hand and squeezed it for a moment before letting her go and saying the one thing she knew would chase away the sadness and bring back her friend's smile. "You daft old cow. The insane things you get yourself into."

Helen did indeed give her friend a smile, a genuine one, as she replied. "Hush and have your tea, moppet." Once they were seated, tea in hand, Helen said, "So tell me all about the shameless American strumpet who dared to be bold enough to kiss your darling Captain Rodgers?"

"He is not my Captain Rodgers!" Peggy protested.

"Peggy." Helen said with a knowing smirk.

Peggy vented through two cups of tea and several chocolate biscuits. When she was finished she felt lighter and the laughter came easier. There was a rattling knock at the door and Peggy's laughter lingered in her voice as she called out "Come in."

"Hey Peggy, I was just wonder… Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know you were in a meeting."

This was her first real look at the man her young friend had fallen in love with, despite how much Peggy protested otherwise, and Helen couldn't help but give him a once over. He was handsome, but she couldn't really rely on his physical appearance now could she? His body had been changed in a similar way to her own, even more so in fact. So any judgments Helen made would have to be based on more than a strong broad chest, pretty blue eyes, and his boyish smile.

"This isn't a meeting Steve." Peggy said to the young man. "It's tea with a friend." She and Helen both stood as Peggy introduced them to each other. She could see Helen looking Steve over with a very critical eye and wondered how much of that scrutiny was Helen as her friend checking out the man she had feelings for and how much of it was Helen examining him as a doctor who specialized in what she called the abnormal.

The encounter was brief but it had been long enough for Helen to get a good read on the young man. He was smarter than most gave him credit for, and clearly a much bigger asset then the American's had first used him as. He was charming, polite, and as the Americans would say, wholesome. He'd be a good counter balance for Peggy's spunk and spark. And the way he looked at Peggy, he was as smitten with her as she was with him. Helen had a good feeling about him, about them, but that didn't stop her from thinking that top-secret serum or not, she would do him great harm if he ever hurt Peggy.

Once they were alone again Helen poured them fresh tea and smirked a devilish smirk as she teased, "I can see why you're first instinct when he emerged from Stark's charmer was to touch his bare chest."

Peggy's jaw dropped. "How did you…"

"I have acquaintances who may have had access to documentation footage." Helen replied as she shoved a chocolate digestive into Peggy's mouth.

Peggy's words were muffled by the biscuit but still understandable. "Old cow."

Helen laughed brightly.

In the days to come that brightness would be a beacon to Peggy. The sound of Helen's laugh, the warmth of her embrace, the steel of her words would be there for her. Hard times were coming for them both, but so too were the good times.


	4. Chapter 4

_New York - 1945_

She stood in the shadows unseen, watching. Across the street music filtered out of the building every time the front doors of the Stork Club opened. Young couples slipped out of cabs or came around the corners arm in arm, drawn in by the sound and bright lights. Many of the young men were finally home from the war and some of them were out with their sweethearts for the very first time since coming home. The euphoria over the end of the war still lingered and would for a bit longer, but it wasn't that sheer joy of life coming from the young couples heading in for a night of dancing and celebrating that held her attention. It was the deep sorrow that radiated off the young woman standing across the street watching all those happy couples going into the Stork Club that held her attention.

The tension in the younger woman's body told her that she was fighting against the sobs that the occasional hitch in her breathing said were just under the surface. Her face betrayed little, the prefect stiff upper lip mask, but her eyes told the real truth. She was too young for that much sadness, that much regret, and that much longing. But that's what war did, wasn't it? It haunted the young. Some would break under the weight of what they now carried along with them for the rest of their lives. Some would pick up that weight and use it to become stronger. Watching her now, in this very moment at least, she wondered which her young friend would be.

"I'm not some bloody fragile doll or broken bird." Peggy called out suddenly as if picking up the thoughts coming from the shadows. It made the woman watching her jump, and Peggy took a bit of satisfaction from that. "You can stop skulking in the shadows watching and actually say hello, Helen."

"Hello moppet." Helen said as she stepped out into the light coming from the street lamps.

Once Helen was close enough Peggy hugged her. "I heard what happened in France. I'm glad you're alright."

Helen returned the hug gladly. "And I you dear."

When they pulled apart Peggy turned to look at the club once more. His last few moments, their last few moments, replayed in her mind again. She couldn't seem to turn it off. Eight 'o'clock. The Stork Club. Don't you dare be late. Still can't dance. I'll teach you. Something slow. I don't want to step….

"Are you going inside?" Helen asked after watching Peggy's emotions play out in her eyes the way a newsreel played out on a cinema screen.

"No." Peggy said with a shake of her head and a force that made Helen take a step back just as she turned sharply to walk away. Peggy walked quickly, forcing Helen to keep up with her, and after a moment, once they were out of the glow of the Stork Club's lights she asked, "How did you know where to find me?"

"I may have strategically overheard your lads talking while refreshing their tankards and tumblers." Helen admitted. "Your Mister Dugan has horrid taste in liquor by the way. He kept passing up fifty year old scotch for cheap American bourbon. I still have heartburn."

It was just the briefest of flickers but the imagine of Helen and Dum Dum drinking together made Peggy smile. But it was just a flash of something other than sadness and grief, and it was quickly washed away. "They're no my lads. They were Steve's."

Helen reached out and took hold of Peggy's arm to make her stop walking and face her. She kept her hand around the younger woman's bicep while titling her head to make Peggy look her in the eyes. "I am so sorry about Captain Rodgers." Peggy tried to look away but Helen refused to allow her to do so. Peggy could hide behind her Englishness with everyone else in the world, but not with Helen, not with someone who knew all to well what she was doing because she did it herself. "He was a good man for a lot of good reasons, but none more important than the fact that he loved you, and I am so sorry you have to mourn him as well as what could have been."

Peggy didn't know what to say. She was struggling with the death grip she had on her emotions. Part of her wanted to break down and sob, give into the grief, and allow Helen to follow through on the support she was trying to offer. Part of her wanted to lash out at Helen, to get angry and yell, to tell the woman she didn't know a bloody thing about her, about Steve, about any of this. Peggy loved and lost a good man, a hero. Helen had loved a sick and twisted serial killer, who for all she knew, was still out there somewhere. Peggy pushed down both desires. "Thank you." She acknowledged Helen's feelings, her concern and caring, and then asked, "What do you want, Helen?"

"I know Colonel Phillips has, requested, you take some time off before he'll give you your new assignment." Helen replied.

Chocolate eyes rolled as Peggy replied, "Of course you do."

Perfectly painted lips smirked for moment before Helen said, "My work during the war has shown me that keeping the Sanctuary confined to London and a handful of out reach posts simply isn't going to due, so I've decided to expand. I'm opening a Sanctuary here in North America. I've bought a little place in the Pacific Northwest. We're just starting to get up and running but I have a lead on something important, and I thought perhaps you might like to join me, unless of course you would rather take that downtime the Colonel requested you take."

She knew what Helen was doing. She was giving Peggy a chance to step out of reality for a little while, a chance to go on one of her straight-out-of-a-penny-dreadful adventures, a chance to spend a few moments not thinking about or grieving what she'd lost. Would it be fair to do that? Would it be right just step away for a moment and catch her breath?

"You don't have to decide right this second." Helen said as she pressed a piece of paper into Peggy's hand. "I'm not leaving for three days. If you want to come along come here before then."

"Helen." Peggy said softly. With Helen looking at her with so much concern and compassion Peggy suddenly didn't know what to say, again, so she asked, "Who ended up under the table?"

Helen laughed. "Who do you think?"

Peggy chuckled and it hurt. "Poor Timothy."

 _Old Town_

Stepping out of the cab after passing the driver his fair Peggy walked up to the old rusted gate and gapped at what awaited her with wide eyes. A little place in the Northwest her arse! This was a decrypted falling down ruin, a long forgotten gothic sodding cathedral! Shaking her head Peggy shouldered her bag and then pushed the gate open. The old iron creaked and moaned against use, making an eerie kind of screech that made Peggy flinch. The building was covered in scaffolding and in the worse places where the old stone was missing and crumbling the most there were men working, making repairs and rebuilding what they could. Oddly, Peggy found herself feeling a strange sense of relief because she knew the damage here had nothing to do with the war. Countless years of existence had left the old building in this state. Peggy smiled a soft smile and shook her head. Perhaps this place was more fitting for Helen than most would understand.

The door was slightly ajar when Peggy finally reached it. She knocked and then pushed it open. Stepping into the grand foyer she felt as if she were stepping into one of the distinguished manors that littered the English countryside. The space was cluttered with wooden crates, furniture hidden beneath linen tarps, and more scaffolding. Wood and stone dust danced in the rays of light coming through the windows and the air was saturated with the smell of paint, wood stain, and turpentine. From somewhere within a gruff voice with an American accent called out, "Be careful with that or her highness will have your head!" Peggy smiled because she'd worked with Helen so she knew how demanding she could be, but she also rolled her eyes because she herself had gotten the derogatory royal titles thrown at her more than a few times.

"So what do you think?" Helen's voice called out.

Peggy turned to see the older woman making her way down the staircase. She gestured at the space around them and said, "Seriously?"

"What?" Helen replied easily as she greeted her friend with a double cheek kiss and playful smile. "I think it's quaint."

"Quaint?" Peggy repeated in a way that said she didn't believe Helen had just said that. "You daft old cow. It's a bloody cathedral!"

"I know." Helen replied as she began leading Peggy out of the foyer. "You wouldn't believe the deal I got. It's surprising easily to buy old places like this."

Not for the first time since meeting Helen all those years ago Peggy found herself thinking that no matter what life held in store for her she would never meet anyone quite like Helen Magnus. Which was probably a good thing because she wasn't sure she could survive having more than one Helen Magnus in her life. After being shown where she would be staying the night Peggy followed Helen into a room that would eventually become the older woman's office. That's where Helen explained what was going on.

"War will always bring out those types looking to benefit from what's going on around them." Helen said as she poured tea. "That includes scavengers, poachers, vultures the lot of them." Her voice was laced with anger that she quickly swept away before continuing. "The war has made certain elements of my work a bit less secretive, you see. Having armies and navies barreling through what seemed to be uninhabited reigns, such as, lets say, the sea, has caused a bit of a ruckus in the world I work in."

Peggy might not know the finger details of how Helen's world worked but she was a clever girl and quickly caught on. "You have a sudden black market type issue?"

Helen nodded. "With living beings at the heart of it. As I said, I find myself faced with the task of expanding what my Father started. If I am to carry on his work I must think past the confines of the boundaries he set in place. I would ask you to join me darling but I have a feeling you've rather committed yourself to another crusade."

"I have." Peggy nodded her acknowledgement. She was going to continue with her work, with Steve's work. "But I'm more than happy to help when I can, Helen."

Reaching over Helen took Peggy's hand and squeezed it. "The same goes for me, Peggy. If you ever need me, for whatever reason, all you need to do is send word and I'll be there."

"I know." Peggy said gratefully. She gave Helen a smile and then got back down to business. "What do these poachers have that you want to get back?"

"According to my sources," Helen began and then waited for Peggy's reaction. "A mermaid."

Peggy choked on her tea for a moment and then stared at Helen with wide eyes. "A mermaid?"

"How are you on ships, darling?" Helen asked with a wicked grin.

Their investigation started in Central America and ended on a ship making it's way to a cluster of islands north of Russia. "Mark my words," Helen whispered as she and Peggy made their way aboard the ship. "They may have been our allies in the war but they're going to be trouble in the long run."

Peggy simply nodded because she'd had the same gut feeling Helen must have had. It was pitch black in the middle of the ocean. No one saw their small craft come along side the cargo ship, no one notice as the two darkly dressed figures boarded, and since it was the middle of the night and most of the crew was asleep no one saw the pair sneaking into the hold to search for Helen's poached Mermaid. Peggy was gobsmacked when they actually found a mermaid in a rudimentary tank. Helen was angry. The poor thing was barley alive. Helen had a ship waiting with a handful of people she'd recruited, but they would need to secure the cargo ship and radio them in. After confirming the mermaid was on board Helen and Peggy dawned gas masks and pulled out the canisters they'd brought with the sleeping gas. That took care of about ninety percent of the ship's crew.

Peggy found herself ducking led pipes, dodging the occasional bullet, and rolling out of reach of a boot angled toward her stomach and another which hovered over her head. She found herself breaking a mop handle over someone's back, whipping the end of a rope across a face, and angling a harpoon just so, so that it hooked into a boot, causing a very angry drunk Russian face first into a railing. Peggy didn't think past her next move, her next counter move. She didn't feel anything but the rush of adrenaline. For the first time since her world had filled with the sound of radio static, Peggy could breathe.

"Will she be alright?" Peggy asked when Helen came out of her medical lab in the lower levels of her gothic cathedral.

"I don't know." Helen said honestly. "I think we got to her in time but I won't know until she regains consciousness."

"You live in a strange and wonderful world, my friend." Peggy said as she took one last glance at the tank on the other side of the window.

"And you're off to make sure the rest of the world is safe and sound." Helen replied. "Will you be alright?"

"I don't know." Peggy echoed the honest answer.

"The grief, the anger and pain, it will fade." Helen told the younger woman. "But there will always be a scar. You're very young Margaret Carter. You have a whole remarkable and amazing life ahead of you. But oh darling moppet, there will be a lot of scars before it's all said and done, and I know you will be strong enough to bare them all with grace and strength."

"You have a lot of faith in me, Helen." Peggy said while they made their way back upstairs. Peggy would be leaving soon, back to New York and her new job at the SSR's New York office. "I wish I could tell you that faith was well placed."

"When you're young," Helen smiled as Peggy rolled her eyes. "It's the faith of others who keep you buoyed until you've figured it out for yourself."

"Figured what out?" Peggy asked.

"You're value." Helen answered. "And I don't mean the value others place on you but the value you place on yourself, because once you know that, once you know your own worth, no one else can force you to be more or less than that."

Peggy thought about what Helen said. What was her value? She started thinking about everything she had to offer, what she could do, the things she could get done. She bet it would be pretty high, now she just had to prove it. At least, she had to prove it to herself and that was easier said than done.


	5. Chapter 5

Old Town - 1948

Sitting at the workbench in her lab Helen was looking through a microscope at a sample of HAP fur she'd found while tracking a more dangerous threat in the Yellowknife regions of Canada. She had heard rumors of HAP activity in the Highlands of Scotland but nothing in North America for generations. It would certainly be something she added to her list of things to look into. The fur seemed to be feline in nature, perhaps some type of snow cat. Interesting. Sitting up from the microscope Helen picked up her pen to jot down some notes in her field journal just as a soft knock broke the silence of her workspace. Helen blinked. She'd been working for several hours and had lost track of time. Now that her focus had been broke she was more than well aware of the stiffness in her neck and the grumble of her stomach. When a second set of knocks sounded she stretched and called out for whichever of her employess it was to come in.

The young woman who stepped into the room was a young Abnormal. Helen had hired her in hopes of giving the girl a bit of training that would help her blend in a little better. The girl had the ability to camouflage herself and tended to do so when overly emotional. Helen was helping her to learn to control that. "Yes Alice what is it?"

"Pardon the interruption, Doctor Magnus." The young woman began. "But you have a guest. She's waiting in your study."

Helen raised a questioning brow at the young woman. "A guest? Did you happen to get a name, Alice?"

The young woman shook her head. "She wouldn't give one, ma'am."

The raised brow quickly melted into a furrowed one. She wasn't expecting anyone was she? No. So who would simply pop in on her unannounced like this? "She isn't Irish is she? I'm really in no mood to deal with Erin these days."

"No ma'am." Alice shook her head. "She sounds a bit like you."

"Interesting." Helen said as she removed her lab coat and hung it on the hook beside the door. "Well I suppose the easiest way to solve this little mystery is to simply go see who's sitting in my study." As she made her way towards the elevator she called out, "Tea if you please, Alice."

She heard the clack of her heels on the hardwood floors echoing in the hall as she approached the room and it made Peggy smile. When she'd first met Helen she'd noticed that the woman even walked with an air of confidence that Peggy wished she had. After everything she'd been through the last few years she was fairly certain she was getting closer. When the door opened Peggy stood and turned to face Helen with a huge smile. They'd known each other for nearly a decade now and Helen looked just as she had the first time Peggy had see her walk into a room as if she owned it and the world around it. She wondered if she would ever get use to that. "Helen."

Helen's eyes lit up at the sight of her friend. "Peggy."

As they hugged hello Peggy said, "I hope you don't mind me just dropping in like this."

"Don't be daft." Helen scolded warmly. "You are always welcome here. You know this."

Peggy smiled as she and Helen sat beside each other on the sofa. "You're looking well for someone approaching a centenarian birthday. I love the darker hair. Was the red not hiding the gray as well?"

Helen laughed. "Cheeky."

Alice brought in the tea and the two women chatted, getting caught up on their lives. Helen told Peggy about how the Sanctuary network was coming along, and Peggy returned the favor by telling Helen about her newest endeavor. "Howard wants to call it S.H.E.I.L.D."

"I think that's a perfect name." Helen replied. "And I think your Steve would have thought so too."

Mentioning Steve made Peggy duck her head and Helen finally ask, "What's the real reason you've come to see me, moppet?"

A small but genuine smile tugged at Peggy's lips as she looked up at her friend and said, "I'm getting married."

Helen looked at the younger woman for a long moment and then asked, "Do you love him, Peggy?"

"Of course I do!" Peggy answered with a huff. "What a daft question. I wouldn't be marrying him if I didn't."

This was true, but Helen continued. "Do you love him the way you loved them?"

That caused Peggy to hesitate which said more to Helen than anything Peggy said aloud. Finally Peggy answered, "Of course not. I love him differently because he isn't them, but I do love him. He's a good man, Helen."

"I have no doubt he is." Helen reassured. "I just want to make sure you aren't settling because you can't have what you really want."

"I want him." Peggy argued as she stood and moved away to put distance between them. Turning to face Helen she spat, "You know a normal friend would have congratulated me. She would have been happy and excited for me."

"You didn't drop everything to come here, all the way from California, for me to gush with schoolgirl giddiness." Helen replied easily. "You came here because you knew I would ask." She sat back and watched as Peggy leaned against the side of the fireplace with her arms held around her middle as if she were trying to hug herself. "You wanted a life with Steve." She said blutly. "But you can't have that because he's gone." Helen didn't hold back. Peggy didn't come to her for her to hold back. "But what of her?"

"Her?" Peggy's eyes went a little wide. "Now you truely are being a daft old cow!"

"You love her." Helen pressed.

"She's my best friend!" Peggy argued.

"She loves you." Helen said. "I've seen it."

Peggy glared at the immortal woman and growled. "Do not twist what I have with Angie."

Helen sighed softly. "I work in the realm of abnormalities, Peggy, and what you feel for Angie isn't abnormal." She stood and closed the distance between them. "You know not all of my lovers have been men, even before the source blood, I was attracted to a person's mind, their heart and soul, not what was between their legs."

"You live in a world of your own creation, Helen." Peggy told the older woman. "The rules don't apply to you. Anything Angie and I had that was more than friendship has to be left behind in the memories of youth. It's what's best for her and her career and for my life as well."

Helen sighed softly but nodded. "If you say so, darling."

"I do." Peggy said firmly. "Daniel and I are getting married, we're going to have a wonderful life together."

"I'm sure you will, moppet." Helen said. "I am happy for you darling. I just want what's going to make you happy is all."

"I know." Peggy replied. She smiled a small but warm smile. "Daniel does make me happy, Helen. I'm not settling. I promise."

Helen nodded. "Then I wish you all the very best my darling little moppet and I do hope you're dear Mister Sousa knows that if he hurts you in anyway I'll give him to a troll to use a rag doll."

Peggy laughed. "He's well aware of the dangers of hurting me. Between Angie, Howard, Ana Dum Dum, and you he knows his life is on the line taking me on as a wife but he wants to do it anyway." Reaching out Peggy took Helen's hand. "You'll come won't you?" She asked softly. "I know how much you dislike having to make yourself look older around people who've seen you before, but I really do want you there."

"Then I will be." Helen promised as she squeezed Peggy's hand. Peggy's smile was so bright Helen smiled as well. When Peggy hugged her she added, "Anything for you moppet. Anything for you."


End file.
